I have been observing something strange lately. Through some of my side projects, I have been exposed to a large volume of anonymous, text-based interactions. A recurring theme has emerged, and it is concerning.
I keep getting messages from people about their experiences on Orz Chat, where they attempt to connect with others, only to find that the person on the other end is often incapable of holding a meaningful, non-technical conversation.
At first, I dismissed this as an outlier. But the pattern is consistent. The moment a conversation drifts away from ratings, problem sets, or system design, the response is usually a dry one-word answer, a dismissive comment, or a sudden departure. It is as if, once the context of an algorithmic problem is removed, the ability to articulate a simple thought vanishes. It is striking how topics like art, literature, or philosophy seem entirely alien to this crowd, as if they possess no vocabulary for anything that cannot be measured or solved.
I am genuinely trying to understand if our hyper-focus on logic is damaging our social lives. Is the competitive nature of our community weeding out human connection in favor of raw efficiency? I am not looking for technical arguments. I am asking why so many of us struggle with the most basic elements of human interaction.
idk
We are competitive programmers, so we usually have communication problems.
I mean communication problems, not run-twice problems btw.
Ask yourself: Am I a CP guy?
If your answer is YES, then you know why you have Comunication Problems (CP). :)
Maybe the other person just isn't interested in art, literature, or philosophy, or went to orz chat to talk about cp instead of other things?
Also why are you going to a cp chatroom and complaining when everyone is talking about cp?
I find discussing problem solving more interesting
No, only I am.
well am an exception here
bro with your rating I don't think you qualify as a competitive programmer
bro you got no chills but yaah certainly i will be better and revisit this chat again. deal?
Have you even looked at his profile...?
idk srry
People don't read blue-rating posts nowadays, duh.
Use ChatGPT to boost your rating and then REPOST THE POST.
I promise to give the answer, but only once the necessary condition is met.
Bruh, then we have to wait for the new years magic (
why is your monke looking at my pfp so seriously !!?
Give me a good example.
My personality got hacked during Div. 2.
maybe it's cuz now some people can't write more than a single paragraph without $$$AI$$$, MrPupsik
What exactly possessed you to confidently assume that I am incapable of stringing together a single paragraph without algorithmic assistance? It’s a bold, yet tragically lazy projection. Did my syntax bruise your ego, or are you just so unaccustomed to encountering structured thoughts online that your brain automatically flags anything coherent as artificial? Let’s clear the air: I don't need a machine to think, write, or outclass you—but it seems you might need a map just to follow along.
Let's dissect the sheer irony of your comment. You’re trying to insult my literacy, yet your entire premise relies on the most exhausted, copy-pasted internet trope of the current era. Sneering "haha, AI" at any piece of writing longer than a tweet isn’t the intellectual checkmate you think it is; it’s a symptom of a shrinking attention span. You’ve essentially admitted that a well-constructed paragraph looks like alien technology to you.
The reality is that your accusation says infinitely more about your own limitations than it does about my habits. People who possess genuine baseline literacy don't look at fluent prose and immediately cry wolf. They just read it. It takes a very specific flavor of insecurity to look at someone else’s vocabulary and decide it must be simulated because you couldn't have generated it yourself in a thousand years.
But honestly, I shouldn't be too hard on you. It must be genuinely terrifying to navigate a world where anyone displaying a shred of eloquence is suspected of being a cyborg. I can only imagine the daily exhausting struggle of your cognitive bandwidth if this is the hill you choose to die on. Are you doing okay? Does it hurt when you have to read more than three sentences in a row, or does the panic only set in when the words have more than two syllables?
Next time you feel the urge to leave a mid-witted comment underestimating my capabilities, do yourself a favor and log off. Take a deep breath, pick up a book—a physical one, with pages, I know they're scary—and practice processing human language at a normal adult level. I promise you, some of us can actually think for ourselves. But hey, if believing a computer wrote this helps you sleep better at night while dealing with your own profound mediocrity, you go ahead and keep that coping mechanism.
Yea no sorry, nobody makes phrases like these. You don't have to write a full essay to defend yourself, nor threaten someone who accuses you of using AI in writing with "...Take a deep breath, pick up a book—a physical one, with pages..."
Is it just me, or is orzchat not working recently? Every person I get connected to just doesn't respond
The issue was identified and resolved, thank you for reporting
That is why I quit competitive programming once I became master here. It's too autistic and detached from real life. People will be red+ (which requires a lot of raw intelligence and hard work) and still be broke, ugly and socially awkward
maybe it's more about the userbase of orz chat. most people opening "talk to strangers" type sites are just bored out of their minds and don't feel like having a meaningful convo. some comprog discord servers are pretty good places to have conversations. perhaps a "im looking to yap about random stuff" mode can separate the people who want to have random conversations and people who wanna talk about programming.
Imagine unironically thinking you are a philosopher because you want to talk about art with strangers. A few points to consider:
Maybe the reason you cannot get a decent conversation is not because of us, but because you are looking for relevance in a place built for logic.
This is what Dijkstra warned us about.
orz chat crowd you say? have you seen the entire academia? yes/no?
To tackle your point, I'm SERIOUSLY concerned by your use of human connection, human interaction. By human, do you mean cp to non-cp people connection only? Does that make cp to cp people connection non-human?
A dry one-word answer or a dismissive comment about problems you have absolutely no interest in is now a sign of the lack of a simple thought? More like a lack of a useless thought. Knowledge of art, literature and philosophy makes only reporter-worthy kind of conversations, and people hate to communicate with the "news".
We don't struggle with basic elements of human interaction, as you call it, these are learned concepts, just like human / animal vision. I reject the thought that cp people may be socially broken or that the reluctance to engage in spontaneous chat outside your domain of expertise imply in any way that you can't articulate a simple thought. By definition, experts spend an ungodly count of hours honing their craft every day and by definition, the lesser the hours they spend doing meaningless things like orz chat, the better they are at their craft. This isn't a new thing, it has always been like this since the beginning of times, painters, sculptors, physicians, surgeons, military generals, military commanders, battle formation specialists, spies, assassins and even politicians etc. the list goes on and on. Experts find it difficult communicating outside their realm of expertise the more expert they are. The competitive nature of the community is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. We now live in an upside-down world where a lot of social values and norms are becoming tangibly erased by con-men and content creators who have seized power. Promoting stupid things like meaningless wrestling matches on hallowed grounds, picking people based on anything but merit, only for how much plastic surgeries they've had and for their ability to look shiny on camera.
Given all these. I TOTALLY understand why anyone will consider cp to cp people communication simply not human connection enough to be considered as human interaction. We are so cooked.
FYI, I have said this before, will say it now, the IQ to do many many other things is no where near what you need to understand say bruteforce search. Any grey level coder can train for 3 months and acquire these skills. In fact, any body can walk by a corporate system designed to train these skills and already be red by evening. I mean, people who can't even count from 1 to 100 can have a meaningful orz chat. So what now?
Sorry pal, not gonna read that essay
My personal take is that spending so much time alone working on something, as many competitive programmers do, will stunt you socially. It extends to any activity, and indeed you will see it across many academic disciplines.
It can be unlearned/minimized. But typically on this website you are interacting with people that still are yet to.
It is striking how topics like art, literature, or philosophy seem entirely alien to this crowd
how is this related? mathematics is full of brilliant minds who are very into philosophy, but find basic human interaction completely unnatural.
weird website vibes all around
good
what
We sacrificed our communication skills to gain problem solving skills. That's the idea.
nice words